Autumn Newsletter 2014
New website for Eden Seeds & Select Organic
After a good long run of 14 years with our original website we were definitely due for an overhaul. Our new website has been custom built from scratch and it addresses several issues that were present in the old site.
The most notable change is we have now combined both Eden Seeds and Select Organic into one website which makes for an ever bigger range of seeds available in the one place. The search facility has been upgraded, the product navigation has been redesigned, the list of seeds in each category now includes a small preview image, and the checkout will now email a confirmation email of your completed order.
Overall we have made a big effort to make our new website (with it's huge product catalogue) as simple and easy to use as possible and we hope you'll have a smooth and easy experience browsing our range of seeds and products. We're not finished yet though, over the next year we have more planned features & improvements to roll out, but for now we felt it best to get the site published sooner so that our customers may have an improved online shopping experience.
Best wishes, Paul :)
Autumn is here, its time to plant
Autumn is a productive planting time. Check your needs of the following autumn vegetable seed now, or whatever you need for your area from the full catalogue throughout our website:
| For growers in the tropics and frost free sub-tropics, you can also benefit from planting:
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Garlic (certified organic)
Available while stocks last!
Monaro Purple Biodynamically grown. Hard-neck mid season type, coiled flower stalk with bulbils, medium to large size bulbs with between 8-10 cloves. Cloves are high quality, skin is white with purple streaks. Very pleasant flavour. Requires cold winters for optimum growth. 1kg $38.00, 18kg $520.00 | Australian White Biodynamically grown. Soft-neck mid season Californian type, large white bulb and cloves, between 6-8 cloves per bulb, stronger flavour, selected in S.A. Requires cold winters for optimum growth. 1kg $38.00, 18kg $520.00 |
Italian Red Biodynamically grown. Soft-neck variety, originally from southern Italy. Large head with white softly marked wrappers. Mild taste and stores well. 1kg $38.00, 18kg $520.00 |
Bunya Nut Tree(Araucaria bidwillii) Majestic Queensland rainforest tree. Excellent timber. Huge cones yield up to 1.5kg of nuts, with low fat, high carbohydrates. Eat raw, boiled with salt or best roasted in the coals 2 minutes, can be dried and ground into a flour. Available February and March only in a good season. 1kg $9.00 | Green Manure Mix |
What is compost?
When organic matter is transformed into a humus colloid we can squeeze it between our fingers and the original organic matter is not recognizable - it has become a dark mass.
So if you have "compost" in which you can still see some of the original materials it is not yet transformed into the humus you and plants seek.
What is needed for the desired transformation is soil life, moisture and warmth.
Where-ever there is soil there is the desired soil life to break down organic matter – so add a little soil finely through your compost heap.
There needs to be a constant and even moisture content – don’t flood it but keep the heap moist. And although we cannot control the climatic temperature the transformation is quicker in the warmer months.
If all the conditions are right and a good balance of manures and plant matter is present transformation can take 4 to 5 months, though in many cases a little longer. Try to use it by putting compost into the soil before it turns to earth completely.
I like to put anything I wish to add to the soil into a compost heap and make it part of the humus colloid.
Use of the Bio-dynamic preparations can help bring in a balanced influence.
Book Specials 20% Off
The Earth's Face Ehrenfried Pfeiffer was a pioneer of biodynamics, first in Switzerland and then in the USA in the pre- and post-war years. This wide-ranging book reflects his concern for the different landscapes of the earth, and the effects of industrialisation and mechanisation on our environment.He studies various landscapes, including plains, mountains and woods as well as urban centres, parks and gardens, and explores what factors (natural and artificial) lead to the maintenance or loss of soil fertility. He calls on all people to take responsibility for our landscapes. His opinions and vision for the future are remarkably relevant today, sixty years on from the original publication. | Soil Fertility Ways of working towards sustainable agriculture for our world have never been more important. This reissued edition of a classic biodynamic work from 1947 is as relevant now as when first published. The book covers all aspects of biodynamic agriculture, including ideas on forestry and market gardening, and includes chapters on evidence of scientific findings of the effect of biodynamic growing, and the effects of biodynamics on health. The book has been faithfully reproduced as originally published, but footnotes have been added to describe modern versions of methods referenced in the text. |
Earth And Man Lectures by Dr. Koenig constituted important building stones in the development of the Camphill movement. They are equally relevant today for the study and understanding of curative education, of our social ideals, and for the anthroposophical comprehension of the world and its civilization. | Cosmos, Earth And Nutrition For beginners and those already involved, covers ecology, food quality and nutrition, CSA, planetry influences, seed quality. |
Natural Way Of Farming Theory and practice of green philosophy. Fukuoka seeks "to demonstrate the validity of five major principles, no tillage, no fertilizer, no pesticides, no weeding and no pruning... To the scientist convinced that nature can be understood and used through human intellect and action, natural farming is a special case and has no universality. Yet the basic principles apply everywhere". 1999 Reprint. | Betwixt Heaven & Earth A compendium of essays pertaining to the Earth as part of a Living Cosmos. Includes a supplement to Bio-Dynamic Planting Calendars. |
2014 Moon Planting Guides
Moon Planting Guide 2014 | Moon Planting Primer 2014 | Moon Planting Guide for Gardeners 2014 (Wall Chart) |
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The 2014 Astro Calendar of the Antipodes. The author has combined his interest in naked eye astronomy and the plant world to produce this bio-dynamic planetary planting guide. Detailed explanations on sun, moon, and planetary rhythms, and their connections to life in the plant world. Printed on certified 100% recycled paper. Builds into a reference work. Brian Keats, 2013, 32 pages. $22.00 | Simplified beginners version of Astro Calendar includes four primary rhythms, Moon phases, Moon altitude, Moon proximity to Earth, Moon in zodiac. Printed on certified 100% recycled paper. Brian Keats, 2013, 14 pages. $10.00 | Wall chart approximately 276mm x 780mm. Excellent quick reference. Stefan Mager, 2013, 2 pages. $10.00 |
News
Tasmania to stay GM-free indefinitely
Congratulations to all Tasmanians on re-confirming the state a GM-free Zone, indefinitely. The state's reputation for top quality GM-free produce and its competitive advantage are boosting sales, with local value adding, more employment and positive marketing. The 160 comments sent to the inquiry: offered no credible case for commercial GM canola that could be sprayed more often and at higher doses with Roundup weed killer. http://www.dpipwe.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/RJOS-9DV54T?open This crop would have canceled the state's successful program to reverse GM canola contamination left over from field trials in the 1990s. False promises misled some poppy & dairy farmers to believe there may be GM benefits for them. The Office of Gene Technology Regulator issued field trial licences for basic pasture and poppy research but all the licences were surrendered without yielding commercial results - for pharmaceutical poppies in 2001 & 2002, for GM perennial ryegrass and tall fescue in 2008, and for GM white clover in 2004 & 2009. Tasmania continues to have an assured opportunity to supply excellent, top-quality GM-free foods and pharmaceuticals anywhere in the world at premium prices. These are the tangible benefits of remaining a GM-free Zone.
DOWNLOAD MEDIA RELEASE HERE
Kangaroo Island Pure Grain benefits from GM-free South Australia
Kangaroo Island Pure Grain growers are also reaping big GM-free premiums from South Australia's GM-free Zone. With wide community support, all political parties will keep SA GM-free, at least until the ban is reviewed in September 2019. Good GM-free policies since 2001 have enabled KI Pure Grain to build a viable business with strong sales of GM-free food, based on shopper demand & competitive advantage. They can grow, value-add & market excellent GM-free food products anywhere, anytime. Even in North America, where half of all GM crops in the world are grown, shopper demand has made GM-free labeled foods the fastest growing segment of food retail. Another 160 countries remain GM-free and are our customers too. http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/commodities/focus/kangaroo-islands-grain-treasure/story-fnker6cv-1226796268175
Steve Marsh's GM contamination case - starts in Perth, Feb 10, 2014
Steve Marsh is a West Australian farmer who lost his organic certification when GM canola blew onto his farm from a neighbour's property in 2010, the first year the crop was commercially grown in WA. Watch a 6 minute video that explains his case and the key issues, here: http://safefoodfoundation.org/what-we-do/help-this-farmer/ Please also contribute to the cost of Steve's case. The Pastoralists and Graziers Association are backing Steve's neighbour, Mick Baxter, making this a David and Goliath contest. Steve's court case starts on February 10, 2014 in the Western Australian Supreme Court. He is seeking compensation for the substantial losses, extra costs and harm that resulted from the GM contamination and his loss of organic certification. In a way, this court battle is unfair to both Steve and his neighbour as the GM canola seed still belongs to Monsanto which created it. The contract of sale transferred responsibility onto the GM canola farmer for any GM contamination. In the circumstances it was inevitable. Rural community relations are poisoned by GM conflicts and Australian governments must step in now to stop it now. Measures to try and prevent future GM contamination will also be part of the case. Gene Ethics advocates no-fault Farmer Protection laws, to automatically compensate any landholder - organic, conventional or public - who suffers loss from GM contamination. A levy on all GM seed sold should fund the compensation so the GM industry pays for keeping its own house in order. Please share this story on social media, far and wide.
I am Steve Marsh - on Facebook
Brilliant: Seeds - The Buried Beginnings of Food (TED talk)
A small cartel of huge agrichemical and GM companies aim to control the global seed and food supplies by owning seed companies. https://www.msu.edu/~howardp/seedindustry.html The foundations of our wonderful food supplies, created by peasant farmers and seedsavers over the past 5,000 years, are being hijacked. Monsanto alone controls 27% of commercial GM and non-GM seed. In just 12 minutes http://tinyurl.com/l4u7tfq award-winning journalist, strategist and educator, Simran Sethi, takes us into our plates to see the erosion and loss of what we grow and eat, exploring crop biodiversity, seed monocultures and consolidation. Small-scale family farmers still grow much of the world's food. Simran explains how we can support them, to ensure the security and sovereignty of seed and food.
Please consider supporting Gene Ethics who are a non-profit organisation working for a GM-free future, by either donation or membership. Like Gene Ethics on facebook
Thank you for your continued support,
Best wishes from Alf Finch and staff.
